


The Proposal

by Auragongal



Series: Digivengers Side Stories [2]
Category: Avengers Assemble (Cartoon), Marvel (Comics), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Arguing, Bank Robbery, Digivengers Universe, F/M, OC: Benjamin Barnes, Weird Marriage Proposals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-04
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-06-06 08:52:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6747277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Auragongal/pseuds/Auragongal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In another universe, Rachel Leighton aka Diamondback tells her daughter about how the girl's father proposed to her mother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Proposal

“So Sheena,” Rachel asked her daughter while the two were taking a break from a sparring session, the former villain having decided to take a chance to reconnect with her little girl after a decade of being stuck in another dimension. “What exactly has your father told you about how he asked me to marry him?”

“Just that it happened while he was on duty for SHIELD.” The pink haired and blue eyed girl said as she adjusted the black goggles she wore before giving her mother a curious look, “Why do you ask?”

“Oh boy… this is going to be harder than I thought.” said the magenta haired woman with a groan, “Okay, how do I explain this… See… Well, the thing is, I wasn’t always in SHIELD, Twinklestar. I used to be a villain apart of a group called the Serpent Society.”

“Are they the group Aunt Tanya, Uncle Seth, and Aunt Cleo were in when you met them? They helped dad out after the funeral. Since well, we did think you were dead for a decade.” Sheena said, causing her mother to give a nervous laugh.

“Yeah…” Rachel said, remembering how one mission to stop a HYDRA plot resulted in her getting dragged to another dimension, temporarily losing her memory, and also getting into all sorts of misadventures with her own team while also working as a member of that world's Royal Guard. While it was a nice gig, being the only actual human in a place full of Digital Monsters, two AIs that looked human and a butterfly motifed weirdo who might have actually been a ghost was not really a fun time. Looking at her daughter however, Rachel smiled as it seemed whatever deity was running the place decided to give her a break and let the girl, a few classmates and six Avengers- Captain America himself among them to her delight, to show up as well. Sure, the place was in the middle of a war after a coup that Rachel had died during, but since it seemed her brother's weird ability to cheat death had kicked in for her and her teammates, somehow, the woman couldn't help but feel like things were starting to go her way.

Even if she still couldn't figure out how her daughter's hair was naturally pink, while Rachel herself had to dye it Magenta... before getting dragged into the Digital World. 

Of course, realizing that Sheena had mentioned that Sidewinder and her two best friends in the Serpent Society, Black Mamba and Asp had helped her husband cope with Rachel's supposed death, the ex-villain crossed her arms as she remembered how her two friends could be around men. Especially Asp.

"Listen, did Ben- your dad, ever go out with Cleo while I was here in the Digital World?" Rachel then asked, mainly to check and see if she needed to kick her husband's ass once she returned to Earth.

“Nope.” Sheena said as, “I don’t think he’s even been on a date at all since well, we thought you died.”

Rachel then gave a sigh of relief and smiled at her daughter. “That’s good, because if he did, I’d have a nasty surprise for him when we get back to Earth. Anyway, ready to hear the story?”

“You bet!” Sheena said, looking quite excited, and so, Rachel began her tale.

~~000~~

It was when four members of the Serpent Society, Sidewinder, Asp, Black Mamba and of course, Diamondback had decided to rob a bank. While Diamondback herself had a date later that week, it wasn’t until SHIELD arrived alongside a forgotten armored hero by the name of Prototype showed up that began what would become one of the strangest events in Diamondback's life. Since this was before Tony Stark and Iron Man, and SHIELD wasn’t exactly fond of interviews back then, there really wasn’t much known about Prototype at all. However, because the Serpent Society also had hostages, SHIELD couldn’t fully act without civilian casualties, and so Sidewinder demanded to “Negotiate” for the hostage- who were currently locked inside another room within the building.

“We’ll accept the offer to Negotiate.” Prototype then said, “However, I’ll only do it if R- _Diamondback_ is the one I negotiate with. Alone.”

Sidewinder raised an eyebrow, at first confused by the odd demand, but then realized the slip the armored hero had almost made, and then nodded while he also did his best to hide his worry that one of their own was in trouble.

“Very well, I will allow this.” Sidewinder then said, before signalling to Diamondback to go with Prototype into the Bank Manager’s office. Once inside, the door was closed, the manager sitting at his desk between the two, with a hero and villain on either side of him. While Diamondback herself was at first confused about why the enemy wanted to negotiate with her personally, that soon passed into surprise as Prototype took off his helmet and set it down on the desk, revealing the face of a brown haired young man with blue eyes frowning at her.

“Rachel, what the hell are you doing with the Serpent Society?” he said, his voice mixed between anger and worry.

“Me?” Rachel then said, “What are you doing with SHIELD? Benjamin Barnes, I thought you said you were just a tech geek!”

“I am one, but you also told me you worked for a businessman as a secretary on our first date, and now I see that 'businessman' is none other than Sidewinder of the Serpent Society, and that you’re a member of it!”

“Yeah, well when were you even going to tell me?!” Both said at the same time, before answering in unison, “When I thought it would be best to!”

“I can’t believe this is even happenin!” Diamondback then said, her Texan accent shining through, “This is not how I planned to break the news to you about what I really do for a living, and I would have loved to know that you were with SHIELD the whole time, I mean, did they send you to spy on me without telling you who I worked for!?”

“What? No!” Ben then said, “I swear, SHIELD had nothing to do with us meeting! Plus, I’m not happy about this situation either! Man, this is a disaster… and our first date was just so problem free too!”

“It was only like that because Asp and Mamba actually shadowed us and made sure other villains didn’t cause trouble for me in case it led me to reveal my secret identity to you!” Diamonback argued, crossing her arms as Ben looked in surprise at her, “Asp actually had to fight off her ex-boyfriend Gamecock just to make sure he didn’t attack us on our date, among other things!”

“Gamecock? Seriously?” Ben said, before shaking his head and throwing his hands up in the air out of annoyance, “Hey, don’t change the subject! There’s still hostages you and your ‘friends’ are probably going to kill, and I refuse to let anyone die while I’m on duty! In fact, I can’t believe I was going to ask you to marry me during our date later this week!”

Silence then filled the office, the frightened bank manager looking between the surprised Diamondback and the stone faced hero that had argued the moment negotiations started.

“What?” Diamondback then said, just to make sure she even heard him right. Realizing what he just said, Ben went from an angry hero to an awkward man as he blushed and looked away with a sigh.

“I planned to ask you to marry me, with something I was keeping in this bank.” he said, “Probably don’t want that now, do you?”

“Depends.” Diamondback then said as she crossed her arms, “We’ve been dating for three years, and I have hostages. Depending on whether or not you still want to go through with it, you can either get the goods and make a damn good proposal, or you can dump me here and now and negotiations are off.”

Ben considered the options, and nodded before looking at the bank manager.

“Can you get me my deposit box, please? Benjamin Buchanan Barnes.” he then said, before taking a pen from the desk, and writing the information down on a piece of paper for the man. The manager, realizing what all was at stake despite the situation, simply nodded and left the office, leaving hero and villainess alone in silence. They could hear whispering outside from both teams who happened to have eavesdropped and knew that this was either going to end badly, or be the strangest moment of their lives so far. Soon however, the bank manager returned with a small box, and after dismissing part of his armor so he can get the key out of his pocket, opened it up to reveal to Diamondback a pair of antique diamond earrings as part of a set alongside a beautiful diamond necklace and ring. Putting the key back in his pocket, taking the box in hand and getting on his knee after his armor closed back up around him, Ben then looked the woman right in the eye and spoke, as though everything depended on this one question, which in hindsight, kind of did.

“Rachel, ever since I first bumped into you on the street and our first date, I've loved you. I realized during the past three years, that I'd want to spend the rest of my life with you, for better or for worse, and even if you're well, a villain. So, in order to save the lives of the hostages you and your fellow Serpent Society members have, and more importantly, because I love you, I'll only ask this once. Rachel Leighton, will you marry me?”

Moments seemed like hours as Diamondback slipped on the ring and examined it, before examining each bit of jewelry and putting it on as well. Looking down at the determined armored hero kneeling down before her, for a moment it seemed like she’d just leave with the jewels after telling him no. 

But then she smiled.

“Yes.” she told him, before helping him up, and kissing him. The bank manager who acted as the witness gave a sigh of relief as Ben grabbed his helmet and put it back on, before both of them left the office together and faced their respective teams... once they made sure the manager didn't tell anyone about their secret identities of course.

“So, how did it go?” Sidewinder asked, while Asp and Black Mamba both eyed Diamondback’s new accessories with interest.

“We’ve come to an agreement.” Diamondback said, “We’re releasing the hostages, and you get to leave. I however, am turning myself in and leaving the Serpent Society.”

“What!?” Sidewinder and Prototype said, while the other two female members of the team seemed surprised, as did the two SHIELD agents.

“He proposed.” Diamondback said, showing the ring, “And, since I’m a bad guy, and it wouldn’t do well for him to go bad for my sake… I’ve decided to try going straight. I mean, if we’re getting married, it really wouldn’t be fair if we had to face each other all the time because of our teams.”

Hearing the news caused both the SHIELD agents that had entered with Prototype, as well as the three Serpent Society members to look even more surprised, before congratulations were given to both of them. Sidewinder ended up understanding and accepted Diamondback’s Resignation with grace as he and his remaining followers retreated with what they did manage to get, while the hostages were released safe and sound. Prototype however, then picked Diamondback up in his arms, and with his fellow agents, personally brought her with them to report to Director Fury and tell him not only about the good news, but also about Diamondback’s retirement from crime.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that while the hostages were safe and that Prototype managed to get Diamondback to quit her old team, Director Nick Fury was still angry that they let the rest of them get away with the loot. This was then followed by a reluctant congratulations for the happy couple, and then Fury offered Diamondback a deal: Work for SHIELD as part of her “Community Service” and she’d be avoiding jail time. However, because of the circumstances Diamondback was to report and stay with Agent Barnes until they knew she could be trusted. As the couple then looked at each other, they smiled and accepted the offer.

Ben of course, was told to never pull a stunt like that again.

~~000~~

“So, in the months after that Sheena,” Rachel then said as she finished her story, “Ben and I worked together, I acted on my best behavior even if the rest of the Serpent Society wasn’t too happy about my quitting, and on your dad and mine’s wedding day, my old friends actually made sure no other villains caused trouble and crashed it. As a wedding gift, of course.”

“Wait, so dad was a superhero and a SHIELD agent?” Sheena said, “Wish he’d told me about being Prototype before!”

“He probably didn’t want you to take his armor for a joyride.” her mother then said with a laugh, “Though, I would like to know why he didn’t tell you about my past.”

“Maybe he didn’t want me to think of you as a bad guy at all, or possibly have me become a villain as well?” Sheena said with a shrug, “Though, he did call in one of his old SHIELD friends to bring in a mini-emp I made to get back at a bully...”

“I appreciate that you’re getting creative with bullies, Twinklestar,” Rachel then said, “But it’s probably for the best that you don’t make anything that could cause the whole world trouble to do it.”

“Love you mom.” Sheena then said, and the two then hugged, glad to have a chance to actually bond after being apart for so long.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I'm not really sure if anything like this ever happened in the comics, I personally felt like that if something like this ever happened for Diamondback in the actual canon universe, she'd sure as hell tell it to her kid.
> 
> Now, as for Ben... while Ben is an OC, his alter ego, "Prototype" is actually a canon character, well two really. 
> 
> Prototype is from a group called Ultraforce, which were originally owned by Malibu Comics until Marvel got the rights and kept Ultraforce in it's own little universe. Prototype himself was an armored hero who acted like a spokesperson for a company called Ultra Tech, so basically an expy of Iron Man that was in Blue and Gold, and didn't really have eye-holes in his armor. 
> 
> The first Prototype was Robert Cambell, and the original suit was this big, clunky, dome-headed mech he piloted until he ended up losing an arm in an accident. Bob's suit also used plasma weapons.
> 
> The second was James Ruiz, a guy who had special powers that basically made him a battery for his suit- which got upgraded into something smaller by Ultra Tech. Turns out the company they both worked for intentionally caused the accident so Jimmy could replace their spokesman. Why they didn't just fire Bob and give a decent explanation is unknown, but since the company was corrupt... eh, it was probably in the Corrupt CEO's handbook or something. I dunno.
> 
> So, why is Ben Prototype in this fic?
> 
> Well, I felt that I needed something obscure to give Ben as a secret ID while making the universe this little one shot's set in just feel like it's own offshoot of the Marvel Universe. So, when I discovered Prototype, I decided to well, make Ben the first and so far only one with that codename, make his time as a hero pre-Ironman's debut and working for SHIELD, and things went from there.
> 
> As a result, because Cap wasn't around at the time the robbery portion of the fic is set, which is about 2001-2002, Diamondback ended up dating Ben after meeting him instead of the Supersoldier, and their first date went like hers and Cap's date did in the actual comics. Also, Ben's suit is similar to your basic armored hero, but can be manipulated with a thought as demonstrated in the story. How? Nanites the suit injected into Ben's body when he got blasted into it, and was kind of dying. Not because Ben managed to hit the right switch, but more like the suit had sentience and realized it was in trouble as Ben was trying to protect it from HYDRA.
> 
> And yes, Gamecock is an actual thing.


End file.
